Semolina Coconut Apple Cake Recipe

Semolina Coconut Apple Cake

Semolina adds a fantastic soft grainy texture to cakes. I’ve made many different variations of semolina cake and it never disappoints.  The cake is also super moist.

I chopped the apples into centimeter cubes. As a result the apples maintained a slight crunch. If you prefer the apples to have a softer texture, cut into smaller cubes, or grate them.

Semolina Coconut Apple Cake

Ingredients

1 cup semolina

¾ cup desiccated coconut

½ cup chopped apples (or 1 cup if you prefer lots of apples)

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1¼ cups yogurt

½ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

For syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Juice from ½ lemon

Method

1.      Soak coconut in yogurt for ½ hour (optional)

2.      Beat eggs and sugar until sugar has dissolved

3.      Add yogurt, coconut, apples and oil and mix well.

4.      In a separate bowl mix together all the rest of the ingredients. Add to the liquid mixture and mix to combine. The batter will be quite 'wet'

5.      Line a 8×8 pan with baking paper and pour batter in it.

6.      Bake at 175°C/350°F until golden brown and delicious, about 25-30 minutes.

7.      To make the syrup: Boil water and sugar for 3 minutes. Add lemon juice and boil for further 3 minutes. Let it cool completely

8.      Pour the cold syrup over the warm cake. Let it cool completely, or chill, before serving.

Semolina Coconut Apple Cake

Semolina Gnocchi (Gnocchi Alla Romana) Recipe

Semolina Gnocchi

Until recently I didn’t realize gnocchi’s can also be made from semolina. According to Wikipedia, “in Roman times, gnocchi were made from a semolina porridge-like dough mixed with eggs, and are still found in similar forms today, particularly the oven-baked gnocchi alla romana and Sardinia's malloreddus (although these do not contain eggs).”

The semolina gnocchi was baked, giving it a slight crunch. I made extra dough and froze it. It froze well, didn’t affect quality.

Adopted from Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients

1½ to 2 cups (00-grade) semolina flour

1 litre milk

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3 large eggs

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ cup grated Parmesan

Method

1.      Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with butter.

2.      Grease a small baking sheet with butter

3.      Combine the milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a pot. Bring to a boil. Add ¼ cup of the semolina, and whisk constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. Lower the heat to medium-low.

4.      Add the remaining semolina flour, ¼ cup at a time and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is very stiff, about 12 minutes.

5.      Remove from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.

6.      Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add ½ cup of the semolina mixture to the eggs and whisk well to incorporate. Add the egg mixture to the remaining semolina mixture and mix well.

7.      Add ¼ cup of the cheese and mix well.

8.      Turn out the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread evenly. Refrigerate until completely cooled, 20 to 25 minutes.

9.      Heat oven to 220°C/425°F

10.  Cut the batter into 24 equal pieces, about 1½ -inches square, dipping the knife in hot water as needed to cut cleanly.

11.  Place the pieces on the prepared 9-inch pan. Dot the top with the remaining butter and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

12.  Bake until the top begins to brown and the gnocchi are puffed, about 25 minutes.

Semolina Tres Leches Cake Recipe

Tres leches cake

A tres leches cake involves soaking a basic cake in three kinds of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream. For the purposes of this recipe, cream is considered milk.

I made a semolina cake instead of a basic cake. Semolina gives a nice texture to cakes, and it is especially appealing in cakes that require soaking, such as Semolina Lemon Coconut Cake and Semolina Yogurt Cake.

Tres leches cake

Ingredients

1 cup semolina

½ cup sugar

1-1½ cups milk

½ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

For the Syrup

12 oz. evaporated milk

14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

½ cup heavy cream or plain milk

Ingredients

1.      Beat eggs and sugar until sugar has dissolved

2.      Add yogurt and oil and mix well.

3.      Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix to combine. Start by adding a liter of milk and add more if the batter is not runny enough. Semolina absorbs a lot of moisture so if the batter turns out to be too runny, don't worry.

4.      Line a 8×8 pan with baking paper and pour batter in it.

5.      Bake at 175°C/350°F until golden brown and delicious, about 25-30 minutes.

6.      Let the cake cool to room temperature. Thoroughly pierce the cake with a fork and

7.      Mix the syrup ingredients and pour over the cake. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Occasionally, spoon the syrup that has runoff back onto the cake.

Semolina Yogurt Lemon Coconut Cake Recipe

Semolina Yogurt Lemon Coconut Cake

Sorry about the very long name, I have listed just about every ingredient in the name! The cake is super moist, and semolina gives a fantastic soft gritty texture. I’ve made variations of this cake many times, and I am still not sick of it. Semolina’s texture in this cake in really appealing. 

Semolina Lemon Coconut Cake

Ingredients

¾ cup semolina

¾ cup desiccated coconut

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour
1¼ cups yogurt

½ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

For syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Juice from ½ lemon

Directions

1.      Soak coconut in yogurt for ½ hour (optional)

2.      Beat eggs and sugar until sugar has dissolved

3.      Add yogurt, coconut and oil and mix well. 

4.      Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix to combine. The batter will be quite 'wet', add a little bit more yogurt if the batter seems too dry

5.      Line a 8×8 pan with baking paper and pour batter in it.

6.      Bake at 175°C/350°F until golden brown and delicious, about 25-30 minutes.

7.      To make the syrup: Boil water and sugar for 3 minutes. Add lemon juice and boil for further 3 minutes. Let it cool completely

8.      Pour the cold syrup over the warm cake. Let it cool completely, or chill, before serving

Semolina Lemon Coconut Cake

Semolina Yogurt Cake Recipe

Semolina yogurt cake

I made this cake 3 times in 2 weeks. Firstly because I bought a lot of yogurt, I couldn’t walk away from a good deal. Secondly, and equally important, this is delicious. The cake is super moist, and semolina gives a fantastic soft gritty texture. Thirdly, and less important, some eggs needed to be used up, because I couldn’t walk away from a good deal.

Semolina yogurt cake goes by various names, basbousa, samali, harisi, rava, revani… There are probably slight differences, some use milk, others use yogurt. To keep things simple, I call mine semolina yogurt cake.

The cake batter is quite wet, but its OK after baked. If after you made the batter it feels very wet, add some semolina. Or alternatively, hold back on some of the yogurt and add it later if the batter is too dry.

Semolina yogurt cake

Ingredients

1 cup semolina

½ cup sugar

1½ cup yogurt

½ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

For syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Juice from ½ lemon

Directions

1.      Beat eggs and sugar until sugar has dissolved

2.      Add yogurt and oil and mix well.

3.      Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix to combine

4.      Line a 8×8 pan with baking paper and pour batter in it.

5.      Bake at 175°C/350°F until golden brown and delicious, about 25-30 minutes.

6.      To make the syrup: Boil water and sugar for 3 minutes. Add lemon juice and boil for further 3 minutes. Let it cool completely

7.      Pour the cold syrup over the warm cake. Let it cool completely, or chill, before serving

Semolina yogurt cake

Orange Olive Oil Polenta Cake with Orange Glaze Recipe

Orange Olive Oil Polenta Cake

I had to do this, to try an olive oil cake. I’ve read lots of rave reviews on the flavor that olive oil imparts, and at the same time I wonder why I don’t see olive oil cake in cafes and supermarkets. Maybe it’s because we are still getting used to savoury ingredients in sweet items.

Anyway, this cake is delicious, moist and orangy! But I didn’t notice any olive oil flavor, even though I used a really fragrant olive oil. In future if I wanted to have a cake with some olive oil flavor, I would use olive oil in the frosting or drizzle.

Orange Olive Oil Polenta Cake

Ingredients

3 orange (about 500 grams in total)

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

3 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

1 cups sugar

½ cup flour

1 cup polenta

1 cup almond meal (or use polenta instead)

1 teaspoon baking powder

Orange Glaze

Orange juice

Sugar or golden syrup

Directions

1.      Boil 2 oranges in water for an hour, ensuring that the oranges are totally covered at all times. Once boiled for an hour, drain and let it cool to room temperature

2.      Cut oranges into quarters, remove any seeds and puree it in a food processor

3.      Whisk the eggs, sugar and olive oil until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture turns pale. Add the orange puree and mix well

4.      Add polenta, almond meal, flour and baking powder, and stir until just combined

5.      Lightly grease a round 20cm cake pan.

6.      Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake at 160°C/320°F for an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

7.      To make the glaze, extract orange juice from 1 orange, mix with sugar/syrup to get the desired amount of sweetness. Cook over medium heat until it thickens slightly.